A new conjugated polymer with donor-acceptor architectures based on alternating 1,4-divinyl-2,5-dioctyloxybenzene and 5,8-(2,3-dipyridyl)-quinoxaline: Synthesis, characterization, and photoinduced charge transfer

A new conjugated polymer with donor-accepter architectures poly[1,4-dioctyloxyphenylene-2,5-diylethenylene- (2,3-dipyridine-2-ylquinoxaline-5,8-diyl)ethylene] (PPV-BD) was synthesized successfully, in which the electron-donating unit was alkoxy substituted phenyl ring, and the electron-accepting unit was a quinoxaline. The resulting polymer had a lower band-gap (1.98 eV) compared to poly[2-methoxy-5-(2-ethyl)hexoxy-phenylenevinylene] (MEH-PPV, 2.12 eV), and was characterized by infrared spectroscopy (IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), gel permeation chromatography (GPC), ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy, photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Its photoinduced charge transfer applications in polymer solar cell (PSC) and trinitrotoluene (TNT) detection were studied respectively, and the results indicated that this polymer might be a good candidate material for PSC or detecting TNT in solution.